Chocolates are not just a guilty pleasure. They can also benefit your health. Here’s a round-up of the latest research on its benefits.

Protein rich foods such as nuts, eggs, cheese, and chocolates, may foster a more tolerant and less inflammatory gut environment. (Shutterstock)

Love chocolate but worried about the calories? In moderation, it can actually be good for your health. Research shows that chocolates can benefit your bowels, your heart and even boost your immunity. Here’s what research says about it:

* Eating chocolate may provide relief from bowel disease.

Research shows that consuming protein rich foods such as nuts, eggs, seeds, beans, poultry, yogurt, cheese, and even chocolates, may foster a more tolerant and less inflammatory gut environment. This could mean relief for people living with abdominal pain and diarrhoea of inflammatory bowel disease. These food items contain an appreciable amounts of tryptophan — an amino acid used in the buildup of proteins — which when fed on mice led to the development of immune cells that foster a tolerant gut, the study said.

Certain compounds found in cocoa can help the body release more insulin and respond to increased blood glucose better.
(Shutterstock)

* Scientists find that cocoa may help fight diabetes.

Scientists discovered that certain compounds found in cocoa — the key ingredient of chocolates — can help the body release more insulin and respond to increased blood glucose better, an advance that may lead to new therapies to treat diabetes. The new study, published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, finds beta cells work better and remain stronger with an increased presence of epicatechin monomers, compounds found naturally in cocoa.

Dark chocolate increases serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain, making us happy.
(Shutterstock)

* It can boost men’s libido.

Dark chocolate increases serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain, making us happy and then puts us in the “mood”.Chocolate also contains phenylethylamine — a compound that has been shown to produce when we are in love. Given that stress can be strongly linked with a lower sex drive, a few squares of dark chocolate daily is a good way to pump up the passion.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in the United States published results of two studies of mice that examined how intestinal immune responses can be enhanced by the consumption of certain nutrients. In the first study, which focused on the effects of flavonoids — antioxidants mainly found in dark chocolate, bilberries and red wine — on intestinal microbiota, researchers found that these nutrients could “collaborate” with certain microbiota bacteria to combat influenza and other viral infections.